Wrecked by A Gaze

It's the gaze.
I told a friend the other day that my future wife will have the most beautiful eyes in the world because it's the eyes that will win my heart and make me fall for her. People say that one gaze can mean a thousand words, and I want my gaze to be the gaze of love, hope, peace, and happiness.

"What did Jesus look like?" I said.
Abruptly, Colton put down his toys and looked up at me. "Jesus has markers."
"What?"
"Markers, Daddy...Jesus has markers. And he has brown hair and he has hair on his face," he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin. I guessed that he didn't yet know the word beard. "And his eyes...oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!"
As he said this, Colton's face grew more dreamy and far away, as if enjoying a particularly sweet memory.
"What about his clothes?"
Colton snapped back into the room and smiled at me. "He had purple on." As he said this, Colton put his hand on his left shoulder, moved it across his body down to his right hip then repeated the motion. "His clothes were white, but it was purple from here to here."
Another word he didn't know: sash.
"Jesus was the only one in heaven who had purple on, Dad. Did you know that?"... "And he had this gold thing on his head..."
"Like a crown?"
"Yeah, a crown, and it had this...this diamond thing in the middle of it and it was kind of pink. And he has markers, Dad."

"...You mean like markers that you color with?"
Colton nodded. "Yeah, like colors. He had colors on him."
"Like when you color a page?"
"Yeah."
"Well, what color are Jesus' markers?"
"Red. Daddy. Jesus has red markers on him."
At that moment my throat nearly closed with tears as I suddenly understood what Colton was trying to say. Quietly, carefully, I said, "Colton, where are Jesus' markers?"
Without hesitation, he stood to his feet. He held out his right hand, palm up and pointed to the center of it with his left. Then he held out his left palm and pointed with his right hand. Finally, Colton bent over and pointed to the tops of both his feet.
"That's where Jesus' markers are, Daddy," he said.
I drew in a sharp breath. He saw this. He had to have.

I'd once heard a spirit "riddle" that went like this: "What's the only thing in heaven that's the same as it was on earth?"
The answer: the wounds in Jesus' hands and feet.
Maybe it was true.

- Excerpts from Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo

Colton Burpo had a visit to heaven at the age of 4.
And that's all I'm going to give out.

THE gaze of Jesus got me. Tears blurred my view right after Colton described where Jesus' markers are. He is real and alive and will come back the SAME WAY he left the earth--with wounds in his hands and feet. God could've fixed the "red markers" but Jesus will come back and show the world LOVE like He showed, his doubting disciple, Thomas. I have never finished reading a book in two days, but I did with Heaven Is For Real because I was so fascinated by Colton's visit to heaven and what Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit has to say to us. I will share more in the next couple posts snippets that totally wrecked me.

Johnny